-- Don Nield <d.nield@auckland.ac.nz> wrote:
I have read IMPACT no. 381 March 2005, "Recent rapid uplift of today's
mountains" by John Baumgardner. I have also had a quick look at a
library copy of the book "The Origin of Mountains" by Ollier and Pain
(OP). I now have the following questions for Bill Payne ( the order of
listing does not indicate importance, and I assume that if Bill does not
know some answers himself then he will check with Baumgardner).

BP: I'm not in contact with Baumgardner.

1. Why has Baumgardner's essay just appeared, when the Ollier & Pain
book was published in 2000?.
2. In view of the fact that OP advocate an old theory (based on isotasy)
in place of a new theory (plate tectonics), what is all the fuss about?

BP: The timetable, as I understand it, having not read the book yet.

3. Why is it such a big deal if some mountains have formed within the
last five million years? That does not mean that all mountains have
formed within five million years, and five million years is
incompatible with YEC anyway.

BP: Agreed.

4. Why does Baumgardner put emphasis on non-uniformitarianism? (Have we
not advanced since Lyell's day? Why does the fact that some processes
occur on a short time scale rule out other processes occuring on a very
large time scale?)

BP: Baumgardner's point was that the high mountains of the earth, according to Ollier and Pain, all formed within the last 5 my, as opposed to the conventional wisdom that they are much older.

5. Why does Baumgardner quote OP in support when OP say that plate
tectonics is not important for mountain building whereas Baumgardner
conludes that "the Flood involved an episode of extremely fast plate
tectonics"?

BP: I'll need to read the book first.

Also, since we are talking about Baumgardner and Bill may have some
contact with him, I raise another question.
6. Why did Baumgardner allow his name to appear in the list of authors
of a paper, that was published in Science 280: 5360, 91-95, 1998, which
in the abstract reads "Computer models of mantle convection ... reveal a
150-million-year time scale for generating thermal heterogeneity in the
mantle ...", when he had as early as 1986 published contrary findings in
YEC technical literature?

BP: You'll need to ask Baumgardner.

Bill

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Received on Sun Apr 17 23:23:18 2005